Harry Oakes was born in Sangerville,
Maine on December 23rd 1874. His parents were William Pitt Oakes, a
lawyer/surveyor and Nancy (Lewis) Oakes, a teacher. Harry was one of two
boys and two girls.

Harry was well educated. He attended
Foxcroft Academy,
Bowdoin College
and Syracuse Medical
School.

In 1896, when he was 22 years old,
Harry heard of a gold rush in Klondike in the Yukon. Harry left medical
school to take up the career of prospector.

Oakes traveled the world as a
prospector. He visited Alaska,
Philippines, Australia, New
Zealand and California without much success.

In 1910, Oakes arrived in the
Kirkland Lake
region of Ontario where he had heard that gold was being discovered.

In 1912, Harry Oakes became a very
rich man with the discovery of an iron ore mine near Kirkland Lake.
This mine was developed by Mr. Oakes and three brothers, Tom Tough,
George Tough and Jack Tough. This mine became known as the Tough- Oakes
Mine which was rich with iron ore.

Harry Oakes continued to prospect by
himself. In the latter part of 1912, Oakes discovered a gold mine known
as Lake Shore Mines near
Kirkland Lake. Lake Shore Mines
became the second largest gold mine in North America. Oakes incorporated
the mine in 1914.

In 1916, to finance Lake Shore
Mines, Mr. Oakes sold his share of Tough - Oakes Mine for $200,000. In
addition, he also sold 10˘ shares in order to generate money to develop
the mine. Following the discovery of a large gold vein in the mine, the
shares were worth in excess of $64.

By 1921, Harry Oakes was a
multi-millionaire.

In 1923, Harry went on a world
cruise. While in Australia, he met Eunice MacIntyre. She was 26 years
younger than 48 year old Harry. Following a whirlwind romance Harry
married Eunice in Sydney, Australia on June 30th 1923.

Harry and Eunice returned to
Kirkland Lake
for a short time.

In 1924, Harry and Eunice moved to
Niagara Falls. They settled in Niagara Falls because of its close
proximity to Buffalo, New York.

Harry and Eunice had five children:

Nancy born in May 1924
Sydney born June 1927
Shirley Lewis born April 1929
William Pitt born September 1930
Harry Phillip born August 1932

All the children were born in
Toronto, Ontario.

In 1928, Harry Oakes built a mansion
for himself and his family on the top of Clark Hill over looking
Dufferin Islands.
The cost of this home exceeded $500,000. The home was formerly owned by
Walter H. Schoellkopf Sr. (1882-1955). It was purchased in 1924. Mr.
Oakes rebuilt this estate house to include thirty-five (35) rooms,
seventeen (17) bathrooms and air conditioning throughout. The 20 acre
estate included a swimming pool and a five hole golf course. Harry Oakes
named his estate Oak Hall.

Harry Oakes was known as a very difficult man
to work for. He was direct and abrasive at times. He was a driven man
subject to sudden temper outbursts. It was a trait that he
unfortunately learned from others during his early years in the
prospecting business. On the other hand, Sir Harry Oakes was a tenacious, brilliant and
generous man. Throughout his life he gave generously to the
communities in which he and his family lived.

Mr. Oakes and his family lived in
Niagara Falls from 1924 until 1934 when they moved to the Bahamas.

Throughout the difficult years of
the depression, Harry Oakes became a philanthropist. Mr. Oakes
deliberately created many jobs for those without by restoring the
original Portage Road. This section of Portage Road had been closed and
re-routed to accommodate the building of the Canadian Southern
Railroad. The section of Portage Road that paralleled the existing
railway tracks, located near the top of the moraine overlooking Niagara
Falls and passing by the front of Loretto Academy,
was rebuilt. This section of road became known again as Portage Road. The road located at the
top of the moraine was named Oakes Drive in tribute to Harry Oakes.

Workers were paid two dollars for
half a days work.

He was a supporter of local
athletics.

In September of 1930, Mr. Oakes
deeded 16 acres of farm land at the corner of Stanley Avenue and
Morrison Street for an athletic field. This park was named Oakes Park and it opened for public
use in 1931. As a condition for this transfer of parkland, Mr. Oakes
insisted that city owned land at Poplar Park
remain a playground.

Harry Oakes is best known for his
contribution of Oakes Garden Theater to the Niagara Parks Commission.
This is the property on the north-west corner of Clifton Hill and River
Road where the former Clifton Hotel was situated before it was destroyed
by fire on December 31st 1932. In exchange for this property, the
Niagara Parks Commission gave Mr. Oakes two small sections of land which
occupied the south side of present day Clifton Hill above the glacial
moraine.

Oakes Garden Theatre was opened to
the public on September 18th 1937.

In 1934, Harry Oakes was named the
ninth member of the Niagara Parks Commission.

Harry Oakes and his family had lived
in Niagara Falls for a ten year period extending from 1924 to 1934.

In 1934, Harry Oakes and his family
moved to Nassau in the Bahamas in an attempt to escape the massive
Canadian taxes that the ruling Conservative Government had levied
against him. According to Harry, it was costing him $17,500 in taxes per
day to live in Canada. The government wanted 85% of Oakes’ immense
wealth in taxes and was taxing his mine so extensively that it amounted
to as much as 25% of the gold mined at Lake Shore Mines.

Harry Oakes had become the richest
man in Canada and one of the richest in the world. He was paying over $3
million dollars in taxes per year.

On June 8th 1939, Harry
Oakes was granted the title of a baronet of the United Kingdom by King
George VI in his list of birthday honours. Harry Oakes became known as
Sir Harry Oakes.

The Murder of Sir Harry Oakes

Shortly before midnight Wednesday
July 7th 1943, Sir Harry Oakes was murdered at his Nassau estate in the
Bahamas where he was living. He was 69 years old.

At the time of Sir Harry Oakes
murder, his wife Eunice and their three sons were at the family
residence in Bar Harbor, Maine. His eighteen year old newly
married daughter: Nancy was spending the summer in Vermont while her
husband Alfred Fouquereaux de Marigny remained in Nassau. Shirley was
away as well.

Marigny was thought by the family to
be a gold-digger and was disliked by many family members.

Harry Oakes had been struck in the
head with a triangular shaped object that had pierced his skull in four
places. His body was then placed on a bed, soaked with gasoline and set
ablaze. A severe storm ironically saved the Oakes estate home from being
completed destroyed by the fire by putting it out before it could
spread.

Harold Christie, a family friend was
an overnight guest at the Oakes home on the night Sir Harry was killed.
Mr. Christie had attended a dinner party the evening before and had
spent the night at the Oakes estate. Christie remained throughout the
following day. He had played tennis during following the afternoon and
had spoken to Sir Harry throughout the day. According to Mr. Christie,
they spoke together that evening before saying goodnight and going to
bed at about 11:30 p.m. Mr. Christie discovered the lifeless and
partially burned body of Sir Harry Oakes the next morning. Christie
claimed not to have heard or seen anything. He was not considered a
suspect. There were unconfirmed reports that Mr. Christie and Alfred Fouquereaux de Marigny
had been seen together in an automobile shortly before Sir Harry Oakes
murder.

Alfred Fouquereaux de Marigny was
questioned by police. He had been in the area of the estate that night
and appeared to have singed hair on his arms.

The killing of Sir Harry Oakes presented the
governor of the Bahamas, the Duke of Windsor, with a considerable
problem. He believed that the local police lacked the expertise to
investigate the crime and, it being wartime and thus difficult to bring
detectives across the Atlantic from London, he turned instead to two US
policemen he knew in the Miami force. It was to prove a fateful
decision.
Within two days of their arrival, Captain Melchen and Captain Barker had
arrested Oakes' son-in-law,
Alfred Fouquereaux de Marigny , a tall,
amusing Mauritian.

Following a police investigation,
Alfred Fouquereaux de Marigny was charged with the murder of Sir Harry
Oakes.

Alfred Fouquereaux de Marigny
had admitted to being near Oakes's house on the night of the murder, was
known to be on bad terms with the multimillionaire and was said to be
short of money.Marigny denied any knowledge or
responsibility of Sir Harry Oakes death. He however indicated that he
was attending a party nearby and had driven a female companion home and
in doing so had driven past the estate several times.

All of Nassau was convinced of his guilt. He was
committed for trial, and a rope was ordered for his hanging.

At the subsequent trail, he was acquitted of the charge.

At trial, the primary piece of evidence against
Alfred Fouquereaux de Marigny was a fingerprint of his which Captain Barker
claimed to have found on a screen near the bed where Oakes had been
killed. Since de Marigny had not been to the house for many months, and
prints deteriorated quickly in Nassau's humidity, this promised to be
conclusive evidence against him.

In cross-examination, de Marigny's counsel,
Godfrey Higgs, gradually broke apart the crown's case that his client
had killed to get his hands on Nancy's vast inheritance. In particular,
it transpired that the fingerprint produced in court had, claimed
Captain Barker, been lifted clean off the screen by him so that no trace
of the powdered original remained. Nor could he show convincingly where
on the screen it might have been. This lent force to the defense
suggestion that Captain Barker had framed de Marigny with a print of his
taken from a glass.

Though de Marigny's alibi and witnesses also
proved shaky, his wife Nancy did not. Braving a fever and the opprobrium
of her mother (who believed de Marigny guilty), Nancy appeared in court
to testify for on his behalf.

As the last person to be called, Nancy made a
considerable impact on the jury (as had her well-chosen selection of
dresses throughout the trial). With a finely honed sense of the
dramatic, she appeared almost to faint while giving evidence, and later
walked out during the crown attorney' statement, claiming she could not
bear to hear "such filthy things" said against her husband.

Within two hours of being sent out, the jury returned their verdict - a
sensational one that acquitted
Alfred Fouquereaux de Marigny by a majority.
There were wild celebrations outside the courthouse, and he was chaired
aloft by the largely black crowd.

The uproar that greeted the decision had drowned
out a rider added by the all-white jury which recommended that
Alfred Fouquereaux de Marigny and a friend,
the Marquis de Visdelou, should be deported from the Bahamas. De Marigny
had alienated the colony's officials and mercantile class with his
contempt for their conventionality. Four days after his acquittal the
governor's executive council approved his deportation.

Although debatable, the person
responsible for his killing Sir Harry Oakes were never apprehended. His
death remains a mystery.

The death of Sir Harry Oakes has
been the subject of much speculation over the years. A number of books,
a movie and a mini series were made about his life and unsolved murder.
Many unsubstantiated theories have been penned about Oakes murder
including a connection to organized crime. His mysterious death to this
date still provokes much interest and debate.

In 1946, the value of Sir Harry
Oakes estate was 3,600,000 pounds sterling (an equivalent of $10,080,000
million dollars at the rate of exchange in 1954). This did not include
the Lake Shore Gold Mine and any other real estate holdings.

Income from the Lake Shore Gold Mine
from 1924 to 1943 after taxes amounted to $34,713,500
dollars.

In 1949, Nancy had her marriage to Alfred Fouquereaux de Marigny
annulled.

By 1954, Nancy had married Baron Lyssard
von
Hoyningen-Huene of Germany. Nancy became a baroness. On February 18th
1955, Nancy gave birth to a son. Nancy later
separated from him. Nancy had inherited 2/15th of her father Sir Harry
Oakes' estate.

In 1954, the City required the land
at Poplar Park
for the site of the present Greater Niagara General Hospital. The Oakes
family granted this request and withdrew the condition imposed for the
acquisition of Oakes Park.

On February 2nd 1956, Lake Shore Mines was sold by the Oakes Estate. Little Long Black Goldmine Limited
of Toronto acquired controlling interest in the mine. By the end
of 1955, Lake Shore Mines had distributed approximately $110 million
dollars in dividends. This mine had generated 15 million tons of ore and
had produced $250 million dollars in gold. At the time of this
purchase,the mine was expected
to be productive for at least ten more years with an annual projection
of $2,700,000 million dollars worth of gold.

LEGACIES

William Pitt Oakes

On August 27th 1958, William Pitt
Oakes died on Saturday at the West Hills Sanatorium in New York
City. His physicians said the 27 year old died as a result of coronary
thrombosis complicated by a liver ailment. Oakes was visiting New York
City on business and was staying at the Westbury Hotel before falling
ill and being taken to the Bronx nursing home. He died shortly after his
arrival.

William Pitt Oakes lived in Nassau
in the Bahamas with his wife, the former Eunice Bailey of London,
England. He was the director of the Kamative Tin Mines Limited in
Rhodesia and had interests in several oil drilling companies.

William was the best man at his
younger brother - Harry Phillip Oakes wedding to 18 year old Christiane Botsch in 1957.

Shirley had become a lawyer and was
living in New York City before returning home to Nassau.

Sir Sydney Oakes

Sir Sydney Oakes was born in Toronto
on June 9th 1927 while his parents were residing at Oak Hall in Niagara
Falls. Sydney attended St. Andrews College in Aurora, Ontario. Further
schooling took place at Cornwall in England.

In 1944, Sydney broke his wrist when
his motorcycle collided with a car on Avenue Road in Toronto.

At the age of 17˝, Sydney joined the
British Grenadier Guards and later served in the Royal Berkshire
Regiment. Following World War II, he remained in Burma and India for a
period of time.

Sir Sydney married the former Greta
Hartmann of Copenhagen, Denmark on June 21st 1948. They had three
children: Christopher (1949), Felicity (1952) and Virginia (1954).

Following the death of Sir Harry
Oakes, his title of baronet was transferred to his eldest son – Sir Sydney Oakes.
Each of the surviving sons and daughters inherited a fortune.

From 1952 to 1953, Sir Sydney Oakes
and his family lived at Oak Hall. During this time he was a member of
the Niagara Falls Rotary Club and was active in civic affairs. He and
his wife Greta Lady Oakes operated a popular riding academy. Lady Oakes
was an accomplished horse-woman. The academy was located on property
which now forms part of the Oakland's Golf Course.

On Monday August 8th 1966, Sir Sydney Oakes
was killed in Nassau, the Bahamas when the sports car he was driving
failed to negotiate a highway curve and smashed into a utility pole. Sir
Sydney had spent part of his childhood in Niagara Falls and later as an
adult .

Sir Sydney Oakes was 39 years old.
Nassau Police said that Sir Sydney was alone in his leaf green Sunbeam
Alpine and was apparently heading from the exclusive Lyford Cay Club to
the Nassau airport when his sports racing car went out of control and
snapped off a light standard. The bulk of the pole smashed down on top
of the car pinning Oakes inside. He was freed with difficulty but was
dead on arrival to hospital. The impact was so forceful that license
plate number of the car - 976 was pressed into the wooden pole.

Newsmen who met with Sir Sydney
Oakes moments before the accident said he was driving then at cruising
speed.

Sir Sydney Oakes was a well
known sports car enthusiast and had raced another of his cars, a Sunbeam
Tiger in Nassau's annual speed week last year. he was planning
again to do so this year in the December 3rd to December 12th event. Sir
Sydney was one of the founding members of this event and was the first
president of the Bahamas Automobile Club.

Sir Sydney's baronet title now
passes to his eldest son, Christopher, age 17.

Sir Sydney Oakes and his wife Greta
were divorced in 1956. The divorce was uncontested. Sir Sydney retained
custody of his children.

Following his divorce, Sir Sydney
was married a second time in 1961 to Nancy Hoyt. They had one son -
William Pitt Oakes. He was named after Sir Sydney's brother who died in
1958.

Sir Sydney owned the largest
bottling company in the Bahamas and was also involved in real estate.

Sir Sydney had two sisters: Nancy
(Mrs. Tritton) of Mexico City and Shirley (Mrs. Alland Butler) of
Nassau, the Bahamas.

At the time of his death, his mother
Eunice Lady Oakes was traveling by train to Los Angeles and was to leave
for Australia when the mid afternoon tragedy occurred.

Nancy Oakes (von Hoyningen-Huene)

Nancy Oakes was born in Toronto, Ontario
Canada on May 17th 1924. She was eldest of five children born to
Eunice and Harry Oakes.

The whirlwind of publicity, gossip, mental torment and tragedy in which
she found herself began on July 8th 1943, with the discovery of the body
of her father, Sir Harry Oakes, in his beach front house outside Nassau,
in the Bahamas.

In May of 1942 the previously twice divorced,
Alfred Fouquereaux de Marigny eloped with Nancy Oakes, 14 years his junior
and were married (without previously informing her parents). Nancy was
then 18 years old.

When her husband was arrested for the murder of
her father, Nancy de Marigny was in Vermont.

She returned to Nassau and began to help to organize her husbands
defense and to sustain his morale while he remained in prison awaiting
trial. She gave evidence at his trail on his behalf which subsequently
resulted in the acquittal of her
husband.

During this sensational trial, Nancy, with her
auburn hair, deep-set eyes, fine figure and mild resemblance to
Katharine Hepburn, soon became a favorite of the dozens of reporters
sent to cover the case.

Newspapers in Europe and the USA vied to break
fresh developments in the story, which provided exciting headlines for
readers weary of the war.

Following her husbands exile from the Bahamas,
Nancy de Marigny followed him into exile with their first stop being the
Cuban home of his friend Ernest Hemingway.

The marriage of Nancy and Alfred Fouquereaux de Marigny
had begun to tarnish even before her father's murder. They separated in
1945 and were divorced in 1949, with Nancy insisting on an annulment.

In 1952, she married Baron Ernst von
Hoyningen-Huene, but they were divorced in 1956.

Six years later she married Patrick Tritton and
moved to Mexico, though when that union was also dissolved she reverted
to the von Hoyningen name and style.

Reckless, selfish and not a little vindictive,
Nancy consoled herself in an old age increasingly blighted by frailty
and blindness.

Sometimes she hinted darkly that family advisers
had been behind her father's murder, but since she drank more rum than
was good for her, and could perhaps no longer distinguish between the
truth and what she thought she remembered, such asides were of dubious
value.

Died January 16th 2005 at the age of 80 years. She
is survived by a son and a daughter.

Eunice Lady Oakes

On June 9th 1981, Eunice Lady Oakes
died at the age of 87. She is survived by her son Harry Phillip Oakes
and two daughters: Nancy Tritton of London,
England and Shirley Butler of
Nassau, in the Bahamas. Lady Oakes was predeceased by her husband Sir
Harry Oakes and sons: Sir Sydney Oakes and William Pitt Oakes. She was
the principal owner of the Welland Securities Company (which is today
known as HOCO)

Harry Phillip Oakes

In 1961, at the age of 28 years,
Harry was working at the accounting firm of Crawford, Smith and Swallow
located on Queen Street in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Harry, a family
friend of Laurence Crawford for many years, was working eight hours a
day for approximately $30 per week. After work, Harry would go home to
#3 Robinson Street and work on his correspondence course in accounting
from Queens University.

Harry didn’t need the money because
he had inherited part of the family fortune and was a multi-millionaire.

Once a medical student, Harry was
forced to drop out because of the responsibilities of his vast estate
holding which included many properties, mines and businesses throughout
the world. With the corporation registered in the Bahamas, Harry often
was required to travel there on business trips. For relaxation, he and
his family would retreat to the Oakes estate in Nassau.

Harry was well educated. He attended
Valley Forge Military
Academy, Stamford University,
McGill University
and the University of Toronto.

He has traveled the world with his
mother and father.

In 1951, he and a friend spent three
months motoring through the wilds of southern Africa
armed with a gun and a camera. He stopped briefly in Rhodesia to buy a tin mine. Ten year
later, Harry indicated the mine was just started to pay off.

Since the death of his father, Harry
and his mother Eunice Lady Oakes receive hundreds of letters from all
types of people in all walks of life seeking money. Most according to
Harry are crank letters.

Harry and his mother became the
principals of the Welland Securities Company. Harry owned and operated
the Park Motor Hotel located on Clifton Hill. The Fallsway Hotel on
Clifton Hill was purchased by Welland Securities in 1960.

Harry enjoys photography, water
skiing and flying. Harry had a private pilots license.

In 1957, Harry Phillip Oakes was
married in Toronto, Ontario to Christiane Botsch of Hamburg,
Germany. Christiane was the
blonde daughter of a meat packer from Hamburg, Germany. Harry and
Christiane met while they were attending extension classes at the
University of Toronto. Here Harry was studying business while Christiane
was studying English and anthropology.

Harry and Christiane had four
children; three sons: Harry Newell Oakes born in December of 1958, Phillip G.
Oakes was born in September of 1961 and Michael Lewis Oakes was born in
July of 1966; and one daughter: Bianca Eunice born
in 1964.

Harry Phillip Oakes remains the
patriarch of the family and the as a partial benefactor of his father's
fortune. Harry continues to manage and operate the vast Oakes Estate
holdings.

The sons of Harry Phillip Oakes -
Harry Newell Oakes and Phillip G. Oakes, (the grandchildren of Sir Harry
Oakes) have taken over much of the families day to day business
operations and to this day continue to manage the Niagara Falls and
other Oakes holdings under the
name of HOCO Enterprises (formerly Welland Securities). It is today one
of the largest owners of real estate property in Niagara Falls. "HOCO"
is the acronym for the Sir Harry Oakes Company.

Bianca attended Emma Willard School
for Girls in Troy, New York from which she graduated in 1982. She is
currently residing in the USA.

The following
locations and facts about them are but a few of many famous sites
& attractions to be found in Niagara Falls. The best of it is FREE
to see...so think of Niagara Falls when planning your next vacation.
If you have questions of a current or historical nature about the
Niagara Falls area or suggestions feel free to e-mail Rick at